The invention generally relates to management of regulator-induced switching noise for sampled systems.
It is not uncommon for a highly integrated circuit to have a large number of analog blocks and subsystems. One of these blocks/subsystems may be a DC-to-DC voltage regulator, a circuit that converts a DC input voltage to either a higher or a lower DC output voltage to power other blocks/subsystems of the integrated circuit.
One type of voltage regulator is a switching regulator, which is often chosen due to its relatively smaller size and better efficiency than other types of regulators. The switching regulator typically includes an inductor (a stand-alone inductor or an inductor formed from a transformer, as examples) and one or more switches that the regulator opens and closes in a controlled manner to transfer energy between an input voltage source, the inductor and the regulator's output terminal to regulate an output voltage.